Background: Neonatal mortality remains a public health concern in developing countries such as Burkina Faso. Improving the survival rate of newborns requires a good knowledge of the current situation. This study aimed at determining the risk factors for neonatal mortality in the Neonatology Department of Saint Camille Hospital of Ouagadougou (HOSCO - Hôpital Saint ...

The response of the adaptive immune system is usually less intense in premature neonates than term neonates. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether immunological parameters vary between preterm (PT) neonates (≥32 weeks of gestational age) and very preterm (VPT) neonates (<32 weeks of gestational age). A cross-sectional study was designed to prospectively follow PT and VPT ...

INTRODUCTION Early nCPAP seems to prevent ventilator-induced lung injury in humans, although the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this beneficial effect have not been clarified yet. OBJECTIVE To evaluate plasma levels IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-α immediately before the start of nCPAP and 2 hours later in preterm infants. METHODS Prospective cohort including preterm infants wi...

The authors studied the extent to which preterm birth and perinatal mortality are dependent on the gestational ages of previous births within sibships. The study was based on data collected by the Medical Birth Registry of Norway from 1967 to 1995. Newborns were linked to their mothers through Norway's unique personal identification number, yielding 429,554 pairs of mothers and first and second...

Melatonin possesses potential efficacy in perinatal brain injuries, and has been proposed as adjunctive pharmacological therapy in combination with hypothermia in the clinical setting. However, the pharmacokinetics of melatonin in preterm and term newborns is still unknown. The aim of this study was to analyze the pharmacokinetics of melatonin after intragastric administration in preterm infant...

Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is used parenterally for treatment of threatened abortions and repeated spontaneous abortion in pregnant women. No controlled epidemiological studies of preterm birth and low birthweight newborns in pregnant women with HCG treatment have been published while the results of animal investigations were controversial. The data of 97 pregnant women with HCG treatme...

Chlamydia trachomatis infection in pregnant women is a critical condition because the infection can induce an ectopic gestation, preterm delivery, premature rupture of membranes, and chorioamnionitis. Furthermore, the newborn may become infected by vertical transmission; however, at present there are evidences that intrauterine infections can occur. Here we examine this evidence and describe th...

Every year, four million babies die in the first 28 days of life. This equates to more than 10,000 deaths per day worldwide, most of which are related to premature childbirth. In 2000, at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, the World Health Organization established and signed a pact with 191 countries containing eight millennium development goals. The fourth of these goals was the pled...

The amount of faecal pancreatic enzyme elastase 1 was significantly lower in 42 preterm newborns than in 12 full term babies at day 2 (89 (3-539) v 354 (52-600) microg/g, p<0.0007) and day 5 (164 (3-600) v 600 (158-600) microg/g, p<0.05) and correlated positively with total nutrient intake during the first week of life in preterm infants. This should probably be taken into account during early ...

BACKGROUND Grasping at birth is well-known as a reflex in response to a stimulation of the palm of the hand. Recent studies revealed that this grasping was not only a pure reflex because human newborns are able to detect and to remember differences in shape features. The manual perception of shapes has not been investigated in preterm human infants. The aim of the present study was to investiga...